


a golden tattoo

by benwvatt



Category: The Resident (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, he loves her a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28081251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benwvatt/pseuds/benwvatt
Summary: “I’m the tattooed one in this relationship!” Conrad says.“Okay, you’re the one with more tattoos. Not the same thing as the only one," Nic murmurs.In which Nic has a secret tattoo and Conrad decides to find it.
Relationships: Conrad Hawkins/Nicolette Nevin
Comments: 13
Kudos: 37





	a golden tattoo

“You’re lying,” Conrad says, that crooked grin making its presence known.

Nic shakes her head.

“Through your teeth,” he goes on, shooting her a sly look. “There’s no way you have a tattoo that I don’t know about.”

“I got it with Jessie when she turned twenty-two,” she announces, smug. “We were looking for something spontaneous to do, and it was a sisterly thing. As in, we share DNA, isn’t that amazing?”

“I’m the tattooed one in this relationship!”

“Okay, you’re the one with more tattoos. Not the same thing as the only one.” Nic glances down at her boyfriend’s arm, the neat whirls of the caduceus there staring back at her, and she wonders what it’s like to have so much _story_ inked on your skin. 

“I still don’t believe you. Why wouldn’t you have told me?”

She shrugs. “It never really came up. It’s pretty small, sometimes I forget it’s even there.”

“But I’ve seen you naked before.”

“Maybe,” she leans in, “you weren’t looking closely enough.”

“I guess I got distracted.” Conrad stands up then, takes her hand and tugs her toward their room. “Oughta pay more attention.” Nic’s toeing off her tennis shoes, stumbling a crooked path across the floorboards.

* * *

The day before Jessie’s 22nd birthday, she tried to bake herself a cake. Said it was something about finally being an adult, and Nic just laughed. “You were an adult at 18 too, you know.”

“Doesn’t feel real quite yet,” Jessie mutters, hopping up and sitting on the counter. “After I took a couple years to work before I started undergrad, most people my age are already graduating. I just started.”

“You’ll get there in your own time,” Nic says. She sticks her finger in the batter, tastes it, and frowns. “Yuck. Not enough sugar.”

“I didn’t add it yet,” Jessie teases.

Nic rolls her eyes. “Skipping steps again, huh?”

“Hey, it’s called improvising. All the greats do it.”

“Oh, you’re in culinary school now?”

“I might as well be,” Jessie brags.

* * *

“So where’d you get your tattoo?” Conrad asks, soft. “Let me think, you were twenty-four? Twenty-five?” He holds the hem of her shirt, pulls it up over her hair. He kisses her cheek, then the other one.

She resists blushing, but her blood betrays her. Nic’s face scrunches up as she smiles. “Twenty-four. Made sure to pick a not-so-noticeable spot, for all the future employers and everything.”

“So practical. You’re very cute when you’re telling me your backstory, you know that?”

“Thank you, I’m so glad you find my twenties adorable. Didn’t seem so fun when I was downing espresso shots and dragging myself to my 8AMs.” Nic smiles as she lies down. Her head tips back and she stretches her arms out, gazing up at paint-splattered ceiling and the half-lit room.

“Uh, you’ve shown me photos of you in your twenties. Don’t dismiss how pretty you were. If I’d have met you then?” He kisses her shoulder, pushing her bra strap (purple, a little worn) to the wayside. “Would’ve asked you out on the spot.”

“You literally did that a few days after we met,” she says. “In an exam room. With an unconscious patient!”

“Well, when you find the one, you shouldn’t wait.” Conrad kisses her collarbone, drawing a lazy trail up to her neck.

Nic giggles. “Why are you taking so long?”

“I’m trying to find your tattoo. It requires a lot of concentration.”

“I don’t have all day,” she teases.

“You don’t think I can find it? Ouch. No faith.” Conrad unclasps her bra. “Maybe I should just look farther. Extend my search.” He kisses her collarbone, then down, down some more.

Her ears redden as she gasps 一 it’s almost a reflex at this point, flushing in the heat of the moment 一 and Nic manages to stammer out a _yeah, anything_ as Conrad roams across her skin.

“There, that’s better.” He smirks as he unbuttons her pants and pulls her underwear to her ankles, and that one sentence leaves her laughing.

“Oh, is this a game to you?”

“Maybe. We’re very good at making our own entertainment.”

* * *

Jessie’s cake was bubblegum pink, Nic tells him in the afterglow. Her hair’s messy across the pillows, thrown every which way, and Nic tears up a little thinking of her sister. Jessie’s cake was pink because she’d always wanted an outrageously dyed birthday cake as a kid, and their mom had said no every year (“so unnatural! it’ll dye your tongue for a week!”)

“So what was Jessie’s tattoo?” Conrad asks. He slings an arm across her shoulder, sitting up in bed. “Seeing as I still can’t find yours, you gotta tell me something. I could use a hint.”

“It was Gemini, the constellation. She got it on her shoulderblade.”

“And you?”

“Taurus. Same location, but the stars aren’t strung together with lines like Jessie had.” Nic turns and points to the left side of her back, a few inches beneath the ice-skating scar she got when she was twelve.

“Wait, those aren’t freckles?” he laughs, running his hands over her skin.

“I wanted it to be really hard to notice. Like the stars just blended into the rest of me, the discolorations and stretch marks.” Nic smiles. “Unlike some of us with obvious back tattoos, I was worried about how it’d look to other people.”

“Well, I think it’s really nice. It sticks out to everyone who knows it’s there. Diamond in the rough.” Conrad trails the stars together with his fingernail, leaving fading marks. “Also, I’m _so_ baking you an obscenely colored cake next year. I’m thinking lime green.”

“No. Just no.”

“Sherbet orange? Fire-engine red?” he suggests.

“Please don’t get me a neon birthday cake.” She bites her tongue. “But if I had to pick, maybe electric blue.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated :)))
> 
> note: I just realized I've written 5% of all the Conic fanfics on ao3?? I feel so proud. 5 percent!!! writing is great and i love how much fans love their creativity.


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